Author: Oz Admin

One TeslaCon tradition, a Makers Room, has built a tradition of demonstrating and leading all kinds of hands-on constructions. The Oz Club wanted to contribute, so we’ve developed a few Oz projects simple enough to create in the limited time available for project time slots. The most time consuming of them creates a mini art gallery in a shadow box. For the maker, it means selecting portraits to glue into mini frames, and cutting out mini Oz characters to serve as museum patrons. So something as simple as cutting and gluing will create a fun keepsake. But depending on how many characters to you want to include, it can be a lot of cutting! The project is currently limited to 15 with a supply cost of $20. If we find there is considerably more interest while we can still order more supplies, we’ll update the limit. We’ll also have time set to come stamp your favorite Oz message into a bracelet. Start thinking about what you’d like your wrist to say. From an MGM classic line like “There’s No Place Like Home” or “Over the Rainbow,” to something you associate with a favorite character. Chris Chapman, an Oz fan and long-time crafter, is coming to TeslaCon to lead these projects. For years her Etsy shop has offered pendants, bookmarks and other keepsakes using mini-books made on game board pieces or handmade Oz cabochons. And a friend of her’s is helping her prepare an additional project where interested attendees paint sets of wooden peg dolls to be Oz characters. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for TeslaCon Fans for more details.

T. Craft and Ryan Bunch are teaming up at TeslaCon with their own unique look at songs from Oz musicals. From the memorable to the forgotten, you are sure to be intrigued by the sheer variety of songs that have brought Oz to life—and by the stories behind them. It’s kind of their thing. Ryan wrote Oz and the Musical: Performing the American Fairy Tale as his PhD thesis. And T. has been performing in and staging musicals since she was a child, with an emphasis on revivals of the earliest Oz productions.   Just how early is that? In 1902 Dorothy took her first steps on stage and Oz, as an American musical, was born. Encouraged by critics and audiences alike, the trial run in Chicago, moved to Broadway where The Wizard of Oz became a theatrical sensation. The musical extravaganza ran for 293 performances. Multiple traveling companies kept it on the road through 1909.  Baum wrote two other Oz musicals before turning his interest to silent films. But Oz musicals didn’t stop.  Through the years Broadway and films have revisited Oz to make all kinds of musical magic. The 1939 film by Metro Goldwyn Meyer offered a song-filled show topped with “Over the Rainbow”—since named the Song the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. While we can’t sing ‘em all and stay all night, T and Ryan can take us on a tour of highlights. Expect a fun and fascinating program of memorable songs, choruses, and musical moments that have helped make Oz a beloved American classic.  T. is the Artistic Director at Offsite Connecticut Theatre. As well as the writer of the musicals: “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – A Psych Rock Movie” and “Phantom of the Opera – A New Musical.” T. has also revived classic musical works of the 1800s and early 1900s with Golden Age Theatricals, for which she has been interviewed on “It’s Free IP!,” and lectured on the topic at events including CharlOz & The Raggedy Ann Rally. Ryan Bunch, as we’ve shared on this blog before, currently serves as President of the International Wizard of Oz Club. 

In dark Oz stories, the hedonistic “sex, drugs and rock and roll” of the 1960s and 70s morph into sex, drugs and especially violence. The steampunk esthetic is not the essence of dark Oz, but lends detail to these dark worlds. Dee Michel will look at the steampunk esthetic in dark Oz works in various media such as: →TV: Tin Man (2007), Emerald City (2015); →Comics: Oz Squad (1991-96), Caliber’s Oz (1994-96); and →Films, perhaps: Twentieth Century Oz (1976), Return to Oz (1985), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) Dee Michel co-wrote a chapter on the Cowardly Lion for The Characters of Oz, in which he compared the Lion’s incarnation in recent *dark Oz* works with Baum’s and MGM’s versions of the Lion. Several of his reviews for The Baum Bugle, the journal of the International Wizard of Oz Club, are about dark Oz novels. Dee has also written Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love The Wizard of Oz and has given talks on why gay men love Oz, Oz and queer history, the T-shirts of Oz, and Oz in general. His VoiceOver appeared the documentary It’s Dorothy (2025, Jeffrey McHale) and his work has been discussed in The Village Voice, The New York Review of Books, and other print, online and radio sources and in academic works. A collector of Oz books and related materials since he was a child, exhibits of items from his Oz collection have been seen in academic and public libraries, and as part of a fine art show. Dee has Masters and PhD degrees in library and information science and was on the faculty of the Information School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

New to Oz? Jane Albright, Oz enthusiast, collector, and long-time member of the International Wizard of Oz Club will start Thursday morning’s TeslaCon programming in the Oz Club’s breakout room with a whirlwind tour just for you.  If all you know is the classic MGM Musical, or the recent Wicked films are what’s drawn your attention to Oz, you aren’t alone. 125 Years of Oz will run you through highlights of Oz books, the 1903 Broadway production, early silent films, cartoons, The Wiz, and much more. While the emphasis is on books, stage, and screen production, Jane weaves toys, collectibles, characters, comics, the greater Oz fan community, and much more into this presentation. Think of it as a shortcut to discovering the bigger picture.  Jane also co-presents with Ryan Jay a talk about the Wheelers, a cyborg race that races around on four wheels in place of hands and feet. Her Sunday presentation show you ways to continue exploring Oz after TeslaCon wraps up. That talk looks at Oz destinations around the US you can visit, and scans through a website focused on helping you find all the Oz places and events imaginable. Presenter: Jane Albright A past president of the International Wizard of Oz Club, Jane Albright joined it as a 12-year-old in 1971. She frequently draws from her extensive collection to support Oz exhibits from her home in Kansas City. She’s written Oz fiction for the Club’s annual anthology, which she currently edits. And she occasionally has non-fiction published in The Baum Bugle over topics as diverse Oz illustrator W.W. Denslow’s private island in Bermuda, the history of Oz puppetry, and Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess’s performance as the Scarecrow in Walt Disney’s unproduced Rainbow Road to Oz. She received the Club’s highest honor, The L. Frank Baum Memorial Award in 2000. One of her Club responsibilities is making sure member conventions happen, so she will be wearing a number of figurative hats during TeslaCon. Since she’s also tackling all the contests, expect a literal hat or two, too. If you’re curious enough to search her on Google or Youtube, “Stick ‘Oz’ after my name,” she says. “Because I share it with a celebrated woman’s basketball coach—who has far more reason than I to be in the news.”

Ryan Jay is a nationally syndicated entertainment journalist and Wizard of Oz historian. He can be seen Fridays on NBC-Milwaukee’s “The Morning Blend” and on Saturday morning newscasts, reviewing what’s worth seeing, streaming, or skipping in theaters and on TV. Ryan is a member of the Critics’ Choice Association which annually awards excellence in TV and film at the Critics’ Choice Awards. He regularly interviews celebrities and local performers, promoting current work. Prior to his work in broadcasting, his career spanned 13 years in television production, producing major pop culture and entertainment programming for networks such as Bravo, Showtime, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, TLC, and The Jerry Springer Show. As an Oz Historian, Ryan produces and emcees Wizard of Oz-related events and presentations at fandom cons, museums, theaters and schools across the country. In recognition of this work, he was honored to have his handprints & autograph cemented with those of notable Oz celebrities at the Oz Museum in Kansas; and was bestowed honorary lifetime membership by the L. Frank Baum and All Things Oz Historical Foundation in New York. He has been an active member of the International Wizard of Oz Club since childhood. Notable Oz interviews include Wicked’s original Broadway stars Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth and Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz, including their participation in an Oz documentary he is currently directing. It focuses on the creation and legacy of the song “Over the Rainbow” and is produced by Aaron Harburg, great-grandson of Wizard of Oz lyricist Yip Harburg. Other highlights include work and interviews with stars from the film adaptation of WICKED, Return to Oz, Oz the Great and Powerful, NBC’s Emerald City, The Wiz Live, the original Broadway & revival of The Wiz, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, Sci Fi’s Tin Man, The Muppets Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Off-Broadway’s The Woodsman, Tom & Jerry Back to Oz, Boomerang’s Dorothy & The Wizard of Oz, Prime Video’s Lost in Oz, relatives of the stars and once-surviving Munchkins from MGM’s The Wizard of Oz; and more. For TeslaCon 2026, Ryan will share selected interviews with cast and crew members from Disney’s 1985 live-action film Return to Oz including a wonderful conversation with composer David Shire. A related presentation will focus more directly on the Wheelers, a race of cyborgs Dorothy encounters in Ozma of Oz, that have wheels instead of hands and feet. That talk will include an interview with Pons Marr who played a Wheeler in Return to Oz. And Sunday Ryan takes the podium again with an update on the latest happenings of interest to Oz fans. From Wicked to the Oz Universe graphic novel, the new It’s Dorothy documentary, and touring productions such as Oz on Ice and The Wiz revival, Ryan was behind the scenes and on camera getting our questions answered. Expect to hear about a theme park in Australia and live-action films in Russia, and the headline-grabbing, AI-enhanced adaptation of the 1939 MGM film for the Sphere is Las Vegas.